Hollow Fragment
by Dragon441
Summary: Sequel to Tragic Assumptions. What is it that can make you break? Ruby has been broken, and her soul is now shattered. Humanity is nearing the brink of extinction due to White Fang's attacks, and it seems like one special boy named Hunter Raine may be the only way to reform the pieces of a once legendary huntress. But not special in a good way...
1. Chapter 1

The sounds of bones being crunched and bodies being smashed could be heard for miles. A thick smell of blood hung in the air like a noxious cloud of decay. The piles upon piles of dead bodies could be seen in every direction; belonging to both grimm and humanoids. In the centre of the battle stood five girls, and one badass dog.

Ruby's scythe swung through the bodies of countless grimm as Weiss created protective walls and providing support through her dust. Blake was darting back and forth through the enemy lines; slicing through the cerebral cortex' of grimm that she passed by. Yang was a walking fortess as she forced her way through the walls that were being formed by hungry creatures of destruction.

This was the third day in a row of constant fighting. RWBY had been previously used to no more than an hour of sleep at a time, so had a relatively easy time getting used to the conditions of battle. But the others had less luck, and would have to occasionally resort to having others protect them while they slept. This did not usually end well.

A group of larger grimm came into view, and Red Ruby dashed towards them with a smile of glee on her face. Pink Ruby was quick in pursuit, protecting her from the grimm that she had ignored in her dsah. Only a matter of seconds later, and the entire group of them were on the ground. Ruby snuck a quick look over to Scruff, who was growing more powerful by the second.

The usual array of flower petals that was the lifeforce of grimm draining, was instead heading towards him. He absorbed the power of grimm as he fought, making it easier for him to continue. The side effect was that the hundreds of thousands of petals in the air could make vision an issue at times. RWBY was forced to use their other senses to determine when a new wave was coming.

Ruby stopped her scythe in mid swing and her ear twitched slightly.

"Is that, whistling?" Her eyes widened as she made a sudden realization. Her gaze went upwards to see the massive shape of a dragon's body flying overhead. It was one of the largest grimm she had ever seen, easily comparing to that of the serpent grimm that they had fought long ago on the boat.

It reared it's massive head and let out a bellowing roar before sending a blast of fire the size of a city towards the ground. Ruby's instincts kicked in and she immidietely jumped into the air with as much force as she could, trying to avoid the searing flames coming down towards them. Time slowed to a crawl as the fireball passed by her. While she watched it fall, the thought of her team mates came to her mind.

She looked down to see Weiss, Yang and Blake still fighting, having not noticed the dragon yet. Moments before the flames hit the ground, Ruby screamed, knowing what would happen only a fraction of a moment later. The very knowledge of what was about to happen broke her. The pink Ruby which once resided in her soul was no more.

Upon seeing her closest family die, her very essence shattered into thousands of tiny fragments that went flying in every direction. The fireball landed, and red Ruby became the only Ruby. Having no more contest, as well as her emotions being at their peak, Ruby's eyes became full; engraged to a point of no return.

When she landed from her jump, she gave an almost calm look at the millions of monsters approaching her, and then she fought.

This day was the day that grimm became extinct.

Over the next five years, White Fang declared war on humans, having no more real oppostion. They used their massive collection of dust to set of enormous bombs in key locations within the human empire. Several of said bombs had cause islands off the coasts to crash into the main lands. Earth quakes had become a more frequent problem as well.

The war lasted for two years, with White Fang coming out on top with a heavy advantage. Humans became obects, and were forced into slavery. The condition that they lived in were incredibly harsh, and many people died before reaching their next birthday. Only a very select few people were allowed to live in a tiny village near the coast of Vale.

These people were considered among the most priviledged humans on the planet. During this war, Ruby's hatred for others only grew, as the unneccisary death reminded her of the other members of her team. She made the long treck back to Vale's borders, killing anyone who looked at her wrong. She went to the only small piece of humanity that she had left; she went to the cottage in the woods.

The surrounding forest was cleared of people within minutes, no one who saw her living to tell of it. From that day forward, the forest became her grounds, and she did not leave. Nor did people enter. As no one had ever seen her, few people had actually been able to figure out what had happened.

Thus the folklore of the legendary huntress who resided in the forest was born. But as time grew on, people believed it happened less and less. So after five years had passed, no only believed Ruby Rose, to be anything more than a legend. And for those five years, no one stepped foot into that forest.

That is, until the moronic human known as Hunter Raine came along.

**I am so excited to be writing this, I've been thinking up new ideas since long before Tragic Assumptions ended and now I finally get to use them. Also sorry about the name confusion for anyone who read the teaser a while back. I decided that this name would be more fitting. Please leave your thoughts and questions in a review and I will see you all soon!**


	2. Chapter 1 (Real)

**Hiya everybady. So I don't think that I properly explained what my intention was when I posted the prologue. THAT WASN'T THE OFFICIAL START OF THE STORY. It would have been more correct to actually place it as an epilogue, but we all make mistakes. This chapter marks the actual start to the story. It would have been out earlier but I was taking my time to get everything properly set up and prepared. Not to mention I do tend to procrastinate a lot and all. But ANYWAYS, here's the actual first chapter. I will try to get a new one posted every few days or so. **

**Enjoy! :D**

Hunter Raines grumbled to himself. Had been walking through the forest for hours now, and it seemed like he was on a streak of not finding anything. Half way through his thoughts, Hunter tripped over a large tree root and hit his knee off of a rock.

"Damnit." He grit his teeth and stood back up, at this point he was searching more so that he could go home instead of the hope for actually finding anything. 'Heh, home. Like you could call it a home.' Hunter laughed as he thought of his pitiful little shack that he and his mother lived in. It wasn't nearly enough room for even one person to live, never mind two people.

But regardless of the size of his house, he knew that he had it better than most people. Ever since the great war on grimm five years ago, white fang had risen up and become extremely daring. Since then, there are daily killings, robbing's, kidnappings, and what ever else those sick maniacs could think of. It got to the point where there are fewer humans left than they ever could have imagined.

Which was the entire reason that he was out here. There was a rumor that had been going round for years about a legendary warrior. Someone who could topple armies, the same person that led the war against grimm, had lived in this forest. So now here he was, in a stupid, cold, wet...

"Gah!" He yelled as he tripped again, muttering as he stood up. "Stupid forest." Suddenly, Hunter could hear a rustling noise behind him. He whirled around and waved his gun at the moving bush that was only a few feet away. A flash of black shot past his vision as he investigated closer. 'Was that, a beowolf?'

Since the war, sightings of any grimm were extremely rare, but Hunter also knew that even still, beowolfs tended to travel in packs. Probably even more so now than they did before. After brief consideration, he decided that it would be best to try and avoid the beasts, after all he wasn't the best of fighters.

Hunter turned and ran in the opposite direction of the rustling bush, only to fight that the sounds were following him. No matter how far he ran, it always seemed to be right behind or beside him. Before long, he came across a house. His running was distracted by the small building. It looked quite rotted , but even still felt quiant, homey even.

Frantic to avoid the group of beowolfs chasing him, Hunter ran directly into the house and closed the door. He took a few minutes to regain his breath before lifting from his slumped position. When he turned around, he had almost wish he hadn't. Behind him was a hidden figure with a blade pressed against his throat.

"Who are you and what do you want? You have about ten seconds to live, so make it count." He was suprised to find that his attacker was female, but he did not have any plans on dying today.

"HunterRainesI'mlookingforsomeone!" The girl sighed and removed the blade before throwing him into the other roo by his shirt.

"Say that again but slower."

"My name is Hunter Raines, and I'm in the forest because I'm looking for someone." She looked at him oddly.

"I'm the only one that lives in this forest."

"Then are you the one that I am looking for?" She threw her hands into the air.

"That depends, who are you looking for. I suggest that you answer wisely." He looked around nervously.

"Uhhh, Ruby Rose?" Before the words could even finish leaving his mouth, the girl had grabbed him by the throat and had a knife pointed into his side.

"Where do you know that name?" By this point, Hunter was losing his mind in worry. He had been here for less than ten minutes, and he had already been threatened with death twice. Who knows how crazy this girl was. Seeing that he was hesitating, the girl began to dig the tip of the blade into his skin, causing him to yelp in pain.

"OK OK, it's from the legend of the grimm war. They say that she is one of the best recorded fighters ever." She sighed and dropped him, appearing to accept his answer as truth.

"You shouldn't believe all the legends you hear, some of them are no more than just that." At that moment, there was the sound of running feet in the back of the house. Moments later, a huge beowolf came toppling into the room, teeth arranged neatly as weapons of death. Hunter gasped in surprise and backed up into the wall. The girl however, didn't react at all. "Good job on bringing him in."

"Why are you petting that beowolf?!" She sighed exasperated, and turned towards him.

"This isn't a beowolf moron, this is Scruff." That's it, she was officially psycho. Hunter tried to get up nonchalontly, but the girl pointed what he assumed to be a fire arm at him. She pulled off her hood to reveal a mess of red and black hair. "Well, you wanted me, so what do you want?"

Hunter nearly fell back farther into the ground in surprise.

"Wait, wait, you're Ruby Rose?" She growled in annoyance.

"What are you looking for, ID? Now what the hell do you want?" He sighed in defeat and reorganized his thoughts.

'Well, what do I have to lose now? Other than maybe my life...' Hunter stood up again. "My original plan was to ask if you could help Vale with White Fang so that people can live normally again. But I don't know how well that's going to work..."

"Good so you get it, now get out." Ruby turned away and went to walk away, but he reached up and grabbed her shoulder.

"Wait, what I was going to say is that asking won't work, but maybe I can convince you." Ruby's eyes flashed in rage and she grabbed his hand before twisting it harshly.

"Don't you ever touch me." He yelped in pain and fell to his knees. After what seemed ilke an eternity she let him go. "Now get out before I gouge your eyes out." She went to walk away again, but Hunter called out to her.

"Please, just hear me out. Please. There's someone I need to protect, and I need your help."

"I said no-"

"Please, just a few minutes." Ruby sighed, his stubbornness was similar to that of Yang's.

"Fine, you have five minutes, convince me before it's over and I will help." He let out a breath of relief.

"Thank you, thank you. Well what I want to do is have you help us take down White F-"

"No." He gaped.

"But what about all the people who are suffering and dying?" Ruby shrugged.

"Not my problem, I live just fine."

"What about honor, what about protecting people?" Her eyes became lost in a moment of anguish, but returned to their red state quickly. Hunter could swear they were almost silver for a moment, but was gone as quickly as it came.

"My honor died along with the rest of me long ago. And I've learned since then that the real world isn't like a fairy tale." His interest peaked, but he had to convince her, so it could wait.

"That's why people like me, people like you, are supposed to fight to protect those who can't protect themselves." She cringed at the statement that was so similar to one that she had once said herself. In a last ditch effort, she closed her heart once again and hardened her eyes.

"I said no." He smiled inwardly, he had her.

"You also said I have five minutes." She grit her teeth, his arguing reminded her of Blake. Which was breaking down her defenses. "Listen, I don't know what happened to you all those years ago. I don't know what broke your honor, but I still have mine, and I want to protect the ones I love. I took a pretty big risk coming here, and I'm not going to let that be wasted because you want to sit around in this shack until the day you die."

Ruby sat silently. That last schpeel was similar to one that Weiss had once given her on their travels, and the thought of Weiss completely broke her last wall.

"Get out." He was taken a back, she was still going to say no?

"What?"

"I said get out, if we're going I need to change. And I swear to god if you try to peak I'll rip your throat out and put it back in backwards." He squeeked and rushed out the door. But he was also relieved that she had agreed. Hunter sighed and slid down the outside wall of the building.

'Well done Hunter, well done.'

Inside Ruby grumbled to herself.

"Some times I swear I'm too damn nice. How did I manage to be convinced by that idiot?" Moments later she emerged from the small house carrying a small bag and wearing a red and black combat skirt, followed by a completely black cape. Ruby also had a large mass of red and black steel attached to her hip. Hunter had no idea what it was, but assumed it was a weapon. Seeing that he wasn't moving yet, Ruby sighed and punched him in the stomach.

"OW!" She began walking with Scruff at her heels.

"Hurry up before I change my mind at kill you anyways." He scowled as he jogged to catch up to her.

"Are you going to be like this the whole way?"

"Are you going to piss me off the whole way?" He sighed again and admitted his defeat. It was going to be a long trip, likely filled with a lot of pain.

**This has been the first chapter of the sequel story Hollow Fragment, I hope you all enjoyed. Please leave your thoughts in a review of PM. Dragon441 is officially active on this site again!**


	3. Chapter 2

**Here's chapter 2 for you all. I decided since I took a while to start the story I would give at least 2 chapters as compensation.**

**Enjoy!**

Ruby and Hunter walked in silence. It was obvious that neither of them were too keen with speaking to one another. For first impressions, Ruby was certainly quite a character. But it was almost like she was always angry, since leaving, she had already yelled at him several times for doing things that were really not all too bad. Once, he had tripped, and she went ballistic on him for wasting time. Not to mention the everlasting flow of death threats that it seemed she had been storing up for years, just to unleash on his weakening ears.

It had now been two days since they left the house, and for every moment of it, Hunter wondered.

'Is it really worth it?' There was a fairly good reason for him needing the girl's help, but it seemed to not matter anymore. A few dozen feet behind them, Hunter could hear the rustling of a bush. But now, after being yelled at for being stupid several times, he knew that it was only 'Scruff', and not a stalker or assassin. But still, he had to admit that they were making much better time getting back than he had getting there. 'At our current pace, we should make it back to the remains of Vale by nightfall.'

Minutes turned to hours, and before he knew it, the sun was setting on the horizon. Sure enough, it was only a few more minutes until the city's remains could be seen. As she took her first few steps into the view of the city, her face darkened… If that was even possible. But slight recognition could be seen in her eyes.

"Get down."

"What?" Grunting with annoyance, she grabbed his collar and slammed him onto the ground, quickly following herself.

"Stay down and be quiet." After he nodded, Ruby turned around and crawled to the edge of the cliff and peered towards the city. A few seconds after, the sound of multiple gun shots firing rang through the air. But the girl frightened him more than the sound, so Hunter did not cry out in surprise. Ruby though, had seen the assailants before they had finished getting into position, so was easily able to get the two of them out of the way.

She turned to face him and mouthed the words, "Stay here." Before turning back and standing up. A few more shots could be heard, but Ruby didn't even seem to notice, and then she was gone. Hunter chanced a peek, and could see the red-headed girl at the bottom of the cliff, smashing two heads together. Upon further observation, Hunter realized that they were White Fang.

When she had finished making her way back up the mountain, Hunter stood up.

"The white fang must have known what we were planning, more soldiers will likely follow them." Ruby nodded.

"It does seem likely. But I doubt they will be much of an issue." Hunter felt queasy at her comment, but said nothing. They continued to walk towards the city for a few minutes, trying to find the safe house that he knew would be there, but eventually Hunter's curiosity got the better of him.

"So did you really fight off the creatures of grimm single handed?" For the first time since he had met the girl, she cracked a smile, but quickly returned to her previous face of permanent scowling.

"No, that is not true. There were others."

"Where are they now?" Ruby glared at him, but turned back to the road.

"Your guess is as good as mine right now." It was a painful thought for her. Seeing her team members fall in battle was the worst thing that had ever happened to her, so she avoided using any words directly related to death. Ruby's thoughts were interupted by his never ending questions.

"So what were you like before?" She threatened him for not being clear before replying.

"Before what?" He gasped a little from not being able to breath well after being punched in the chest, but forced out an answer.

"You said you lost your honour years ago. What were you like before that?" She furrowed her brow and continued to walk in silence. "Alright so you don't want to talk about yourself, you don't want to talk about your friends, what do you want to talk about?"

"Let's talk about which method I should use to kill you." He raised his hands in defeat.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop." They continued to walk in silence for hours, Ruby continuosly thinking about Weiss, Blake and Yang. She grit her teeth harder and harder the more she thought, but was interupted eventually. "So where are we going now? This certainly isn't the way to White Fang." Her eyes flared harshly for being interupted in her thoughts.

"You said you would stop."

"That was four hours ago. Now listen I know you don't like me, but we have to talk at some point. It's sort of required when travelling together." She stopped and dropped her bag, Scruff quickly running over and dropping off the tent he had strapped to his back. Ruby began setting it up and she spoke.

"You're right, you should go home. I'll deal with this alone." He huffed and grabbed the other end of the tent to help.

"You know that isn't what I meant." She glared at him for touching her tent without asking, but continued.

"Yes I realize that, but you should go home anyways, you'll just slow me down." He grinned.

"Oh really? And do you know where White Fang is right now? How do you plan on doing this without me?" Ruby scoffed at him.

"I know people who know more than you about them, and can protect themselves much better." He sarcastically nodded as they continued to set up the tent.

"I'll have you know that I can defend myself pretty well. I happen to be top of my class back in training school." She laughed at him, a cold, hard laugh.

"You wouldn't last five minutes in half the situations I've been in."

"Maybe, but I'll last more than five minutes in the situations you will be in." Ruby sighed as they finished, and quickly pulled out Crescent Rose.

"I'll make you a deal. You survive one hit from me, and you can come with me where ever i go." He looked at her cautiously, it was the first he had seen of the scythe. It was mostly black, and looked sharp enough to cut a breath of air. But after consideration he pulled out his own weapon, a simple looking sword.

"Deal. I live, and I come. I die and you can do whatever you want."

"I do whatever i want anyways, the only difference is whether you are there or not." She raised the scythe high above her head.

"Oh one more thing. As a bonus, if i win, you have to tell me about yourself." Ruby rolled her eyes and dove into the air. She shot four bullets behind her as she reached the height of her arc and activated her semblance, flying at Hunter with unbelievable speed. His sword was already raised, as it was when she first jumped, but she aimed directly at it.

The whizzing blade of Crescent Rose easily slipped through the metal of the sword, completely severing it in half. However the swing of her blade stopped as it reached his body. Ruby was startled, she hadn't meant to stop it, the blade just refused to penentrate his skin. The clothing he wore was cut as it should be, only he wasn't.

He stepped back when she retracted her weapon with a grin on his face. "I win." She looked at him with mild interest.

"That's your semblance? You can't be cut?" He laughed and picked up the halves of his sword.

"Not exactly. My semblance is that my body's aura will match that of whatever is attacking me. My real bet was whether your weapon was made of metal or aura, and I won the bet. You see something I learned it that you can't hurt yourself with your own aura, so I use that to protect myself." She thought for a moment.

"Does that mean your raw power is that of whoever you are fighting?"

"Well, that of whoever i used my semblance on last, and i must say that you're stronger than i thought. This power I feel right now is rediculous." She sighed and put away Crescent Rose.

"It's a shame I held back, if I didn't you would have died anyways." He jumped a little in surprise.

"You mean that wasn't as hard as you could go?"

"Of course not, if what you say is true and I had of used my full strength; it's likely your body couldn't handle it and would start shutting down completely." He shuddered a bit, not wanting to picture that happening. "But a deal's a deal. We'll camp for the night and continue in the morning."

Ruby crawled into her tent as Scruff settled his body around it. Hunter looked around uncomfortably.

"So, uhh, where do I sleep?"

"You're body, you're problem." He sighed and layed down on the cold ground. Ruby opened her eyes hours later as the light of the sun shone through the thin wall of her tent. As she emerged, Ruby saw Hunter cuddled against the tail of Scruff, who was also snoring. Rolling her eyes she packed up the tent and killed several deer before dragging them back to camp. When she made her way back, she saw Hunter and Scruff both sitting up expectantly. One of them was looking at the meat drooling, the other was Scruff.

Giving a large portion of the deer to Scruff, Ruby cooked the remaining animal over a small fire and handed half to Hunter. "You have five minutes before we leave, be ready." He nodded and slammed his meat into his face, devouring it as fast as he could. When they were back on the road, Hunter repeated his question from the night before.

"So where are we going exactly?" Ruby grinned, a very scary and evil grin that made Hunter almost wish the scythe had killed him.

"I have a few old friends that i need to meet up with for this to happen." He shuddered a bit, wondering what these friends could be like.

"Well who's the first one?" She laughed.

"Oh no one. Just a certain someone I met in jail."

**So I have a certain predicament that I would like all of your help on. I am currently wondering, with an exception of one or two (refer to line above) characters, I have no idea who I should use as travel companions. Now I am asking your opinions, any character from the previous story who hasn't clearly been killed is alright. Whether it's Ozpin, Dylan, the guardians, death kids (who i don't remember the name of), or even original characters, I want to know. So leave your thoughts in a review or PM and I will see you all in the next chapter. **


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